Sonic: A Tale of Two Worlds
by Fairyhaven13
Summary: Eggman alters a chaos emerald, and one of its side effects is teleporting a LOT farther than normal. Sonic is sent to our world and a human girl is teleported into his world in his place. Now Sonic must deal with harsh reality and a sad kid until he can go home, and the human must try not to hyperventilate as Shadow and Tails take her to get Eggman's emerald and get Sonic back.
1. Whatchamacallit Ultronic Chaos Emerald?

**No, this has absolutely nothing to do with A Tale of Two Cities. I never read the book, and I don't even know much of the plot. This is probably entirely different. I just thought the title sounded good. Also, I own nothing but what I do own. My usual disclaimer. =) Short, sweet, and to the point.**

**If you think that this story is too similar to Moonlights Path's "A Hedgehog Story," that's because I personally asked if it was alright for me to use some elements from her story. I'm trying to make this different enough that it's still original.**

**If you don't like this kind of story, I hope you at least read the first chapter. I didn't think I would like it at first, but I tried it out, and I liked it more than I thought I would. Also, this is entirely separate from my other Sonic story. It's supposed to deal with the game universe, not my story universe. So just treat them separately.**

**As usual, on with the show!**

Sonic jumped over yet another badnik and did a flip in midair, slamming down quills-first onto the robot's head. The robot exploded into a million pieces, just like all the others had. The blue hedgehog landed skillfully on his feet, grinning cockily and scanning the area of Green Hill Zone that he was in. It was as pretty as always: green checkered grass, brown checkered soil and cliffs, blue sky, dancing angular palm trees and flowers, waterfalls, and hordes of angry badniks.

Behind him was a long trail of robotic debris. In front of him was one of Dr. Eggman's factories, swarming with mechs trying to protect their master. To his right was another trail of scrap metal, this one created by Shadow, who was at the moment throwing a Chaos Spear into one of the larger and more annoying boss robots who had dared to try and shoot him. Above the both of them was the Tornado, being driven by Tails, who was monitoring the situation from above. As soon as the boss was destroyed, Shadow jumped over its hulking form and grabbed a disk from its chest. He threw it straight upwards, and Tails deftly caught it.

Sonic zoomed over to the black hedgehog and stood in front of him. "That the last one?" he asked.

Shadow nodded stiffly. "Let's get this over with. I want to get back to GUN."

Sonic grinned and rolled his eyes, saying ever cheerfully, "It's always business with you, huh? Alright, let's get in there." He looked up at the airplane circling the battle scene. "Tails! Got any idea where the entrance is?"

A yellow fox peeked out from the side of the plane, flashing Sonic an excited smile. "Yeah, Sonic!" he called. "The blueprints Shadow got off that robot say that the entrance is on the west side of the building." He pointed to the left of the factory, where a thicker swarm of baniks was. "It's extra heavily guarded, though."

Sonic just grinned wider and flashed a thumbs-up sign. "Oh, good! More exercise!" Now it was Shadow's turn to roll his eyes. However, he followed alongside Sonic as they both rushed over to the cluster of robots. Tails trailed after them, obviously not being able to fly his plane as fast. Sonic took out the ones along the ground with his speed, while Shadow took the ones on the walls and just above Sonic with his Chaos Energy attacks, and Tails used his plane's weaponry to shoot any leftovers, which weren't much. The entrance was cleared in about a minute.

Tails landed his plane and jumped out, holding an electronic pad with diagrams of the factory's insides on it, and a disk slot on the side where he had put the robot's information. He, Sonic, and Shadow all ran over to the large mechanical doors sitting in the wall, stopping just in front of the metal porch on the dirt floor. Sonic and Shadow looked at Tails, who was scanning the blueprints he held. Finally, the fox looked up and pointed to the section of metal laying just in front of Shadow. "Shadow, that part has an electric trap on it. Try triggering it with a Chaos attack."

Shadow nodded and fired a Chaos Spear at the spot Tails was pointing to. Immediately, the metal porch and the entire door were covered with streaks of energy. "Now, Sonic!" Tails yelled. "Hit that spot just above-center of the door!"

Sonic grinned and took a quick crouching stance, then jumped into the air, curling into a ball and shooting at a circular plate above the door. The electricity stopped, and the door popped open. Sonic, Tails, and Shadow all ran into the hallway beyond. As soon as they stepped through, the door behind them slammed shut.

A wave of darkness washed over the gray metallic hallway, broken only by the dull blink of red lights along the walls. The whir of machinery could be heard in the distance, but for the moment the trio seemed to be safe. Sonic once again turned to Tails. "Okay, buddy, where's that radioactive Chaos Emerald that Shadow said Egghead made?"

_"Ultra __Ionic _Chaos Emerald," Shadow grunted in annoyed correction.

"Ionic, Radioactive..." Sonic tried to dismiss it with a wave of his hand. "What's the difference? Both are dangerous and need to be turned back into a nice, safe, normal Chaos Emerald, right?"_  
_

Shadow glared and opened his mouth to retort, but was stopped by a tap on the arm. He looked over at Tails, who was trying to give him a look that said, "_An argument is so not what we need right_ _now."_

Tails smiled a bit more patiently at Sonic. "Not exactly. The Ultra Ionic emerald is more than just dangerous- if Shadow's reports from GUN are right, then this emerald could warp minor parts of reality when charged. It could make things appear, alter their shape and form, or change someone's personality slightly; something like that. All Eggman has to do is use its magnetic properties to find the other emeralds and change them to a similar state, and then he could do practically anything he wanted to!"

Sonic's cocky grin never wavered. "Aw, come on, Tails. Eggman couldn't do _anything." _Next to him, Shadow was grumbling about wasting time and about how he'd just explained this ten minutes ago and Sonic never listened. Of course, Sonic wasn't listening to him now, either, so he didn't notice.

Tails shrugged. "Well, not _anything, _no. He couldn't raise the dead or reverse time or make life, or anything like that. But he could use all seven emeralds to reverse your personality so you work for him."

Now Sonic's grin fell a bit. "Work for him?! Ick, no way! Let's get that emerald fixed quick, before he does anything _really_ dangerous with it!" He raced off, and Tails and Shadow ran after him.

Shadow glanced at Tails, a very irritated look on his face. "It's only dangerous if it affects him, isn't it? And he didn't bother to let you answer his question from earlier about where we're supposed to go. And I can bet he's going to forget that whole explanation in about twenty minutes."

Tails took his turn to roll his eyes. "He's not _that_ bad, Shadow. I'm sure if he actually was in danger, he'd be careful, and you'd be worried about him, just like I would be."

"I seriously doubt that..." Shadow grumbled. Tails just smiled again. He knew better.

Sonic led them throughout the factory, running into multitudes of robots, machinery, security weapons mounted on walls, and of course, that weird purple water that always seems to be in Eggman's factories. They crashed through the first floor and broke their way onto the second floor. Another boss awaited them there. This was a large violet robot shaped like a sphere with legs, and it would pull in its legs and roll around trying to hit the three heroes until it eventually slammed itself into a wall. Then it would snap its legs back out and totter in circles until Sonic or Shadow spin-dashed into it. It exploded in three hits.

When Shadow landed after the final hit, he frowned. "That's strange," he said. "Usually when we're this close to Eggman, the larger robots take five hits or more. Three hits are only for the robots further away from him."

Tails looked worried, but Sonic shrugged casually. "I'm sure Eggman's just losing his touch. He was bound to sooner or later. Come on, let's go!" He ran through the doorway behind the blackened robot remains and disappeared.

Shadow gritted his teeth. "He's going to get us into trouble. He needs to think."

Tails looked at his blueprints again. "Usually I'm the one who has to think when we go on adventures. He does the attacking, running, teasing, gloating, and all that other necessary stuff."

Shadow sighed. He didn't think Tails was as annoying as Sonic was. In fact, he'd had a moderately good time during the several occasions he'd sparred with Tails. The kid had a good attitude, but he was just too accepting of Sonic's ways. "All that stuff is _not_ necessary, though!" he insisted. "That's the problem! He's wasting time, and going into trouble without thinking about it. If he doesn't get us hurt, he's going to get himself killed!"

"I know, I know," Tails admitted. "But, what else can we do? He's not going to listen. He's going to have to learn on his own, and hopefully the hard way won't be too hard."

Shadow shook his head. He knew Tails was right. He'd tried to beat sense into Sonic enough times to know that. Sonic was too stubborn- he wouldn't listen to anyone if he didn't agree with them. Without saying another word, he ran through the doorway behind the boss, trying to catch up with Sonic. The little fox quickly flew after him with his propeller tails.

Sonic had gone far ahead by this time, and had left a large trail of broken badniks behind him. All Tails and Shadow had to do was follow it. It seemed that Sonic had gotten a new high after defeating the last boss- even the walls, rails, and elevators were in ruins. Spin-dash sized holes were everywhere. The place looked like Swiss cheese. After about thirty seconds, the two had made it to one larger elevator shaft in the corner of the second floor. By the footprints on its walls, they could tell that Sonic had run up the shaft to get to the third floor. Shadow followed suit, and Tails flew.

On the third floor, the trail was much shorter. It stopped at the doorway in front of them, from where they could see Sonic battling another boss. This time it was green and more like a UFO, shooting out multiple bolts of electricity. Sonic had to get it to hit a mirror-like plate of metal covering one of the walls of the large room, and then the boss would end up reflecting one of its bolts on the mirror and hit itself. Sonic then could spin-dash its head. He had already done this a couple of times, and so by the time Shadow and Tails walked into the room, he was doing his last hit. The Robot exploded, and Sonic did one of his finger wagging victory poses.

He grinned over at the hedgehog and fox in the doorway. "Hey, what took you guys so long? I'm doing all the work here! Not that it bugs me much."

Tails opened his mouth, but this time Shadow stopped him. "Sonic, how many hits did that robot take?"

"Three." Sonic's gin faltered a little bit, but stayed. "I'm telling you, Shadow, Eggman's losing his touch. He's just underestimating me now."

"Or you're underestimating him," Shadow countered._  
_

Sonic mocked offense. "What, me? I would never do that!" He put his fists on his hips and smirked at Shadow. "Come on, Shads, you know I always beat him. What's there to worry about? You asked for help, and you're getting it from the best!"

Shadow crossed his arms. "I never ask you for help. GUN assigned me to get you and Tails to assist me in finding the emerald because the rest of Team Dark was on another mission. Trust me, I would have gone alone or with Rouge and Omega if it were my choice."

"Such a cranky hedgie." Sonic shook a scolding finger at Shadow, then turned and ran toward the other end of the room. "I think this is the main control room here! It's the last floor and the last room, so the emerald's got to be in there!"

Tails waved his hands exasperatedly in Sonic's direction, but spoke to Shadow. "I told you, he _won't listen_. You might as well not try!"

Shadow didn't reply. Instead he said, "This was too easy." He turned and faced Tails completely. "This was _way_ too easy. Even Eggman's easiest factories were never this easy. Not unless they were a trap!"

Tails' eyes widened. Then he facepalmed. "I'm such an idiot! Why didn't I see it before?! It was so obvious!" He flew at top speed toward the doorway Sonic was now disappearing into. "Sonic, wait! Wait!"

Shadow sped up beside him and went past. He reached the doorway just as Sonic went in, and suddenly the door itself slammed down from the roof and blocked the way. "Blast it!" Shadow yelled, punching the metal with all his might. He only succeeded in making a small dent. Tails stopped flying, standing a safe distance away as Shadow unleashed a series of Chaos Spears, spin-dashes, homing attacks, and finally a few large Chaos Blasts onto the door. This last attack caused a plethora of smoke that was coming off the last boss's remains to spread and fill the room, blinding both Shadow and Tails. When it finally cleared, they could see only minor dents in the door, and not a scratch on the doorway itself.

Tails looked at it in shock. "Wha-what?"

Shadow stood in front of the door panting. His power inhibitors were having trouble catching up to his attacks, so he was feeling a bit winded. "It's Chaos-proof," he said. "Eggman finally figured out how to Chaos-proof his factories. He only saved it for the last door so we wouldn't suspect anything. And we were dumb enough not to!" He slammed his fist into the door again. "Now I'm going to fail the mission that GUN gave me. For the first time..."

Tails crept up beside Shadow, still staring at the door with wide eyes. "What's going to happen to Sonic?"

Shadow growled for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "I have no idea."

On the other side of the door, Sonic was frowning and staring at the new barricade. He'd jumped two feet in the air when it shut. "What's the big idea?" he called out. Then he heard the familiar flashing and bashing sounds of Shadow trying to break down the door. He stood back expectantly, but the door never opened. His frown deepened. "Don't tell me Egghead finally figured out how to Chaos-proof his place."

"Oh ho ho, he did, didn't he?" came a voice behind Sonic. He spun around to face the room and saw a big screen on the wall with Eggman's sneering face on it. He had his hands folded in the usual way that meant he was confident and excited to see his plan carried out, with his fingers twiddling.

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted in surprise. "You really weren't here in the factory after all!"

"No, I'm not, silly hedgehog!" Eggman guffawed. "You should have listened to Shadow when you could. I made it so easy for you! It's a good thing thinking isn't one of your specialties."

Sonic glowered at the remark. "Alright, what's going on? Where's that ultronic emerald thingamajigger?"

Eggman's smile lowered only slightly. "Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald," he corrected.

"Whatever." Sonic shrugged again. He glanced around the room he was in. It was empty, except for Eggman's screen, some metal debris, and a pedestal in the corner. The pedestal had a metal tray on top of it, like the kind covering food in restaurants. "Is it in there?" he asked.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" the doctor suggested, his evil smile returning.

Sonic looked thoughtfully at the pedestal. "Why?"

Eggman waved at the door behind Sonic. "What else are you going to do? You can't get me through the screen, and Shadow's not joining you anytime soon. And anyways," his smile got a clever glint to it. "You'll always be fast enough to escape whatever I have in mind for you, won't you?"

Sonic's glare turned into a smile. "Flattery will get you nowhere, no matter how true it is."

The mad doctor looked exasperated. "Well, fine then! Why don't you use some of that debris to tip the cover and see? I'm sure you'll be safe then! Or are you just going to sit here cautiously forever?" Gone went Sonic's smile. He did _not _take to being called cautious. It was like being called chicken. Sonic was no chicken. He ate chicken. At least, if those rumors were true about chicken being in chili dogs. And that was only livestock-type chicken anyways, not intelligent chicken like some friends he'd had before.

But, still, no one called him chicken! Sonic immediately turned and grabbed one of the sturdier pieces of metal off of the floor. Then he narrowed his eyes at the pedestal, lifting his hand that was holding the metal and sticking his tongue out as he aimed. Finally, with a fancy and show-offy flip kick, he threw the metal and hit the cover on the pedestal dead on. It fell off, revealing a green emerald glowing with a strange gray aura.

"Aha!" Sonic yelled. He ran over to the emerald, remembering too late that Eggman had been trying to get him close to it before. That meant he _shouldn't _have gotten close to it, because whatever Eggman had planned for him wasn't going to be good. Before Sonic ever reached the pedestal, the emerald's gray aura had begun to spread. When he reached it, it had already filled half the room. A second later the room was full of gray. All the metal debris gained a pale glow and started to float. The hedgehog gasped when the glow surrounded him as well, and he hovered a foot or two off the floor.

Sonic's eyes widened as he began to lose control of his feet. Not being able to stay on the floor meant no traction. He tried to spin-dash to the other side of the room, but only spun in one spot in the air. He unfurled and looked back at the screen, where Eggman was fairly shaking with mirth. The overweight doctor was even wiping a tear from his eye. "What just happened?" Sonic demanded. "Why can't I get down?"

"It- it seems..." Eggman was trying to calm himself down enough to speak. Seeing Sonic floating there helplessly was just too funny. "It seems you have forgotten one very important thing about Chaos Emeralds, Sonic. They don't just power machines and attacks, remember? They warp time and space! What do you think a Chaos Emerald altered like _this _can do?"

"Um, make me float, for one thing." Sonic crossed his arms and kicked his feet up, trying to get in a more relaxed position in the air. "Get to the point already."

Eggman finally calmed down, and got a very dark, very excited look in his eyes. It was enough to make Sonic slightly nervous. Slightly. He didn't get nervous much, ever. But this was certainly not a nice expression to be looking into when you couldn't do anything about it. "You obviously haven't noticed this, but..." Eggman lifted from behind the screen a remote with what looked like a hundred buttons on it, each with a different label for a different action that could be done, along with a speaker which probably did voice command. There were buttons that said "Shapeshift," "Create Object," "Plasma Bolt," and even "Ham Sandwich." Eggman's voice game from behind the remote: "I placed a chip inside of the emerald so I would be able to control it from a safe distance. Even now, I am controlling it."

Sonic sighed. "Yeah, I could tell. That's why I'm floating. Look, could we get to the point now?"

Eggman gritted his teeth. "Always ruining my speeches! I work so hard on them! Well, no matter. You won't be bothering me _ever again_. Do you know what I'm going to do with you?"

"No," Sonic replied sarcastically. "That's what getting to the point is for."

The remote was held in front of the screen, and one of Eggman's thick fingers was seen pointing to a large button in the center labeled "Chaos Control." The finger pressed it, then went to a little dial next to it labeled "Distance." The dial was spun all the way to the right, "Maximum Distance." Then Eggman pulled the remote to the side, so it could still be seen alongside his sneering face.

"Bon voyage, Sonic!" He yelled. "I hope this lands you in the middle of frigid space, or in a parallel universe! May we never see each other again! Oh-ho-ho!" Laughing maniacally, he pressed the "Chaos Control" button again. The emerald's gray aura turned a blinding bright white. Once again, the light enveloped the room, until nothing could be seen. Sonic shouted out in surprise. Then the light disappeared, and Sonic and the emerald were gone. The screen turned off, cutting the sound in mid-laughter. At the same time, all the debris crashed and clattered onto the floor, and finally, the door opened.

Shadow and Tails were looking over the blueprints to see if there was another way around when this happened. They looked up at the sudden release of the door, and ran into the room before it might close again. Fortunately, it didn't. Unfortunately, the room was empty but for the pedestal and debris. There was no emerald to collect. There was no Eggman on the screen to explain what happened. And there was no Sonic.

Tails whimpered. "W-where's Sonic?" he asked.

"I don't know," Shadow replied. "But I can tell you that I sense a _lot_ of Chaos Energy residue here. I think someone used Chaos Control."

Tails looked up hopefully. "You think it might have been Sonic?"

Shadow shrugged and walked over to the pedestal, examining it. "It might have been. If that's the case, he could be safe."

Tails walked up beside him and looked at the pedestal. Where the emerald had been, there was a warbling black mark. It was almost as if the spot had been burnt to a liquid. "_If _that's the case?" The little fox trembled with fear for his surrogate brother. He stared for a time at the mark on the pedestal. It shifted and shivered, and glittered with different colors against the black. Then, softly, Tails asked, "Normal emeralds don't make marks like that, do they?"

Shadow shook his head. "No," he agreed. "This was the Ultra Ionic emerald. Sonic might have been dumb enough to use it, but I think it's more likely that Eggman sent him somewhere."

Tails drew a short breath. There was no way of knowing where Sonic could have gone, especially if Eggman had done it. When he wanted to, the mad doctor could cover his tracks well. Sonic could be on the other side of the universe, for all they knew. The fox whimpered again. "Sonic..." he whispered.

Shadow glanced at Tails, his stern gaze mingled with the slightest hint of sympathy. He knew how Sonic was like a brother to Tails, and understood how worried he was. He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried, too.

**What do you think? I hope I didn't make the characters OOC.**

**I know I said I was only going to do two stories at once until they got finished, then add more, but Moonlights Path said that she couldn't wait to read my story, so I thought it was only fair to post the first chapter I had written for her. Besides, with three stories out, there's more of a chance of me getting inspiration for at least one and I might post chapters more often. Hopefully three at once will be the limit.**

**And I'm only going to have these two "universes" of Sonic continuity. I don't want to be one of those people who's stories don't relate to each other at all because they have so many conflicts in plotline. The two alternate storylines are for any "what if" ideas I get, and hopefully will satisfy all possibilities.**

**R & R, and God bless!**


	2. Illegal Potatoes

**TatlTails, thank you so much for your review! It really made me happy, and excited to get going on this story, so I decided to start on the next chapter right away.**

**I own nothing but what I own.**

"I am the ultimate!" the TV screen proclaimed. On it, Shadow was standing at the top step of a pedestal with a gold Olympic medal around his neck. Princess Peach stood on the second place step to his right, waving happily, with a silver medal on her neck. On the other side of the platform, in third place, was Metal Sonic, with a bronze medal on his neck.

Marie Ash grinned and pumped her fist in the air. "First place again! Woohoo!" She set down the Wii remote she was holding so that she could pick up a glass of water sitting on the table next to her. She took a few huge gulps, then set the glass down and plopped onto the couch behind her. She tried to keep her grin up. It wasn't working very well.

Despite the fact that she was playing her favorite game, _Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games_, Marie was not happy. She looked around her bedroom. Any normal kid would think it was awesome. A big screen TV on the wall complete with Wii and DVD player, a suede couch, a queen size bed with fancy lace hanging around it, a desk with a super high tech computer, and a shelf filled with all the latest games and DVDs. It even had a mini fridge, and a personal bathroom. Any normal kid would love to hang around here all day. Not Marie; because she new _why_ she was hanging out here.

She was locked in.

Her foster father, Greg, had never seemed like a nice guy to her. He didn't look at her like she was a member of the family on the day he took her in. Rather, standing there in that Montana adoption agency, he had eyed her like a pawn. Not that the agent noticed. He was only too happy to get the restless, hyperactive, ADHD filled Marie out of his office. When Greg took her to his large home in the Rockies, he showed her to her room and told her to stay in there, and not come out. He then left her to her own means.

Of course, Marie couldn't do that. Kids with ADHD find it very hard to sit down and do as they're told. She was in a new house to explore. Plus, the way Greg looked at her and this new order to stay in her room made her suspicious of him. She sneaked out of her room and crept downstairs to where she thought Greg had gone, and overheard him talking to someone on the phone. What he said scared her.

"Yeah, I've got the stuff... Well, just get it ready soon, you hear? I don't like this sitting in my house for long. You know a cop lives just down the hill?... Don't worry, no one would ever suspect a kid. The girl I got will do fine."

Marie had gone back up to her room as fast as she could. What kind of stuff was in the house that made Greg afraid of the cops coming? What did he want her to do that no one would suspect? From then on, Marie was very careful around Greg. She was sure he was doing something illegal, and she didn't want to get on his bad side. However, she also wanted to find out what was going on. So, whenever he left the house, which was surprisingly often, she would sneak out again and snoop around.

She never found anything for the first week. She didn't know where to look. Everything looked normal to her, but she hadn't lived in a normal house in a few years. Her parents had died when she was ten, and she was sixteen now and had been living in the orphanage since then. It was only when she went down to the basement one day and found a pile of bags stacked in the corner that she began to think she'd found something interesting. The bags were all marked "Potatoes", but when Marie looked inside one, she found jewelry. A peek in another bag revealed the same. One one bag that was buried in the center had a piece of paper taped to it with instructions. _Tell the girl you're delivering potatoes. Make her carry the bags to the "customers". Make her give the booklets to new "customers" on how to contact us for more potatoes without attracting attention. Make sure she's the only one anyone sees!_

Marie had felt more scared than ever. So that was it! Greg wanted to use her to throw off the blame he might get from any cops. Sixteen was pushing the age of innocence, but Marie had always been a small girl- only four foot eleven- so she looked much younger than she was. She didn't doubt that the jewelry in the bags was probably stolen. She had no idea where it had come from, nor why Greg was using potatoes as a disguise, nor how much money he was getting for it.

Feeling disgusted, she had crept back up to her room and washed her hands profusely. She felt a lingering filthiness from just touching the bags. Then she had decided to call the police. Unfortunately, as she searched her whole room, she found that there was no phone. Greg might have left her alone all day, and that wasn't a smart move, but he knew enough not to let her have outside contact. There was no way she could use the downstairs phone without Greg finding out about it. She didn't really know how he would find out about it, but she was sure he had a way. More scared than ever, she stopped sneaking around the house and stayed in her room. To distract herself from her problems, she tried playing with the Wii and on the computer.

It occurred to her to use the computer to contact the police. Unfortunately, everything that had a tool for contacting someone- Facebook, Yahoo, forums of all kinds- just came up with a "Site Blocked" logo when she went to them. Greg had altered the proxy. It was a wonder he'd left the opening for her to sneak out of her room at all. By now she was too scared to attempt running away through the front door.

So she immersed herself into the Sonic world. Most of her games were Sonic related, and she continuously played them to keep herself from being scared. She looked up facts on the Sonic News Network wiki, which still let her look at the information pages, although the forums on it were blocked. She became an expert, and soon she found that Shadow was her favorite character. He was calm, cool, and tough, and became somewhat of her role model for staying sane in her room. She even got comfortable enough to play around with some of the expensive clothes already set out for her in her room. Having ADHD means that one gets very easily distracted, and so by the time she saw Greg again, she'd almost forgotten her problems.

She was reminded quickly. He still had that _you're a pawn_ look. "Come on, kid," he said. Marie wondered if he even knew her name. "We're going for a ride. I have to deliver potatoes to some customers."

At those words, Marie's stomach leaped to her throat. What could she do? She couldn't go with him! She'd be doing something illegal! She felt like she was going to be sick. Realizing this could be an excuse, she whispered, "I'm kind of not feeling good right now..."

Greg's look turned into a glare. "You're fine. Come on."

"No, really," Marie insisted. "I might... I might throw up in the car."

"I'll bring a bucket." Greg grabbed her arm, and started pulling her towards the door. "We have a deadline, and I need you to help carry the bags. No more excuses."

"But... but..." Marie desperately tried to think of an escape. "But... I might miss. I don't think the customers will want to wear their potatoes if I throw up on them." As soon as she said that, she almost did throw up. Why did she say that? She wasn't supposed to know about the jewelry!

Greg froze. Then he fixed her with an icy gaze. "Wear the potatoes," he repeated. "Where did you get the idea they were going to do that?" Marie didn't answer. Greg let her go and went out the door. She gulped when she heard the lock click.

He'd found out his mistake in leaving her alone all day. He couldn't risk her giving away what was actually in the bags. She could only imagine what was going to happen to her now.

So there she was on the couch, trying once again to distract herself from reality with a Sonic game. It wasn't working. The grin she'd been trying to keep on faded completely. She wrapped her arms around herself, using one hand to beat herself on the forehead. "Idiot, idiot, idiot!" She cried with every time she hit herself. "This is no time to play games! You got into this mess, and you have to find a way out of this. Come one, you have to think. Focus. Stop being distracted." She placed both hands on the sides of her head, channeling her ADHD into finding a solution. It was difficult.

Okay, so her door was locked. That wouldn't work. No phone, no contact on computer to help her. What about the window?

Now Marie wanted to hit her forehead again. "I'm so stupid. Why didn't I check the window before? I'm going to get myself killed if I don't start thinking." Trying harder than ever to focus, she got up and ran to the window. She tried to pull it open and found it to be stuck. On closer inspection, she saw that the sill was nailed shut. She groaned. Now what? She closed her eyes and thought again. The bathroom. Didn't the bathroom have a window?

She ran to the bathroom and saw that she was right. However, the window was very small- one of those decorative ones placed near the ceiling. Marie climbed onto the back of the toilet to get up to it. She still wasn't tall enough to reach. Cursing the fact that she wasn't even five feet tall, she got down and ran back to the bedroom. Her eyes looked back and forth rapidly. Finally, she grabbed the Wii and DVD player, unplugged them, and ran back to the bathroom. She stacked them on the back of the toilet and climbed up again. This time she was able to look over the sill. There weren't any nails. Greg probably had assumed the window would be too small to get through.

Now Marie changed her tune. Instead of cursing her size, she thanked God for it. This was the perfect chance! Quickly, she lifted the sill. It opened smoothly. Then she placed both elbows on the edge, hoisting herself up so that her head poked through. She slid her arms to the other side of the window and pulled herself up more. Her head poked out enough to let her see outside. Apparently Greg's "deliveries" were supposed to be at night when he locked her in her room. Marie could see the slightest hint of morning on the horizon. There was no one outside, and the windows around the house still had their blinds pulled. The coast was clear.

She grabbed onto the outside edge of the sill and pulled herself more. It was a tight squeeze with her chest, but she was able to get through. Her hips just about got stuck. She nearly panicked, but closed her eyes and forced herself to focus some more. Then she got the idea to turn her hips diagonally. It took some effort, but this gave her just enough room to slide. Her legs went through easily. Suddenly, Marie found herself in midair, just hanging on by the outside sill. She swallowed a scream when her body fell through the window and she almost fell.

She gripped the sill so hard that her knuckles were white. Looking to her left, she saw the drain pipe coming down off the roof. Carefully, she eased her hand off the sill. Another scream was swallowed as she swung off balance with the grip of one hand. Her arm swung at the pipe, and on the second try caught it. She slid her body over toward that hand, then eased her other hand off the sill, quickly grabbing onto the pipe again. She hung there for a second. Then she slowly lowered herself to the ground. When she felt the grass, she turned away from the house to judge her next move.

Around the back of the house ran a tall wooden fence with a gate on one end. Behind the fence, trees could be seen growing about as high as the house, leading off into a nearby forest. She headed for the gate, but stopped when she heard a car pulling in on the other side. Had Greg called someone to come? Of course, he probably had to report that his foster kid had found out his plans. He undoubtedly had some boss in the underworld that he worked for. Although he seemed to be a pretty high ranking thief himself, considering all the expensive stuff in the house.

Marie pressed herself against the wall of the house, listening with a beating heart as the sound of a door slamming was heard. Her feet silently tiptoed toward the gate at the same time as footsteps on the other side stepped away. She reached the gate and pressed her face against the hinge, her eye peeking through the crack. There was a man in a black suit about ten feet away, walking toward the front of the house. She began to think it might be safe to open the gate and run for it, but then Greg walked around the corner to meet the man. He looked frustrated.

"What's going on?" the man asked softly and gruffly. Marie could barely hear him. "Why aren't the potatoes being delivered? We have valuable customers waiting."

Greg crossed his arms. "The girl found out," he said just as softly. Marie couldn't figure out why, unless he was that nervous; they were way up in the woods. "I figured an orphan like her would be happy to stay in the bedroom I filled with all that kiddie junk, but apparently she's been snooping around behind my back."

The man clenched his fists and stiffened. An air of fury surrounded him. "Are you saying you never locked the door on her? You just _assumed?_ You never assume, you idiot! I should have you fired for compromising us!"

Greg put his hands up in defense. "Hey, she's locked in there _now_. I called you here so you could give her a... talking to."

The man relaxed his shoulders, although his fists stayed clenched. "Yes," he murmured. "Yes, I will do that now." The two walked around the corner and disappeared. Marie breathed a sigh of relief, then unlatched the gate. She slipped through and turned to run-

-but forgot to grab the gate again. It slammed sickeningly loud against the wood fence it was attached to. "What was that?" Marie heard Greg yelling. She gasped and ran behind the fence. She could forget about getting help now; she had to get to the forest. Behind her came the sound of heavy footsteps running her way. She screamed, no longer afraid of letting her presence be known. "Get back here!" Greg yelled. Apparently he no longer felt the need to whisper, either.

Outside of her raw fear, Marie wondered in the back of her head if maybe she should have changed her clothes instead of playing video games earlier. She was wearing a nice blouse with a blue top, green bottom, and a gold belt on the upper half; she was also wearing gold wrist cuffs, gray slacks, and dressy green shoes with blue tips. The clothes looked so nice when she tried them on earlier as another means of distracting herself. That was before Greg found out she knew about the jewels. Now she wished she hadn't been so intent on playing "Dress up" and had put on more appropriate clothes. She should have guessed she would have to make a break for it at some point.

_Again, I'm such an idiot..._ she thought. As she dove into the trees, she struggled to keep her balance. Her dress shoes weren't giving her much traction. She slipped and slid on leaves and dirt, but somehow stayed up and kept running. Greg burst through the forest behind her. Marie picked up speed, zigzagging around some of the larger trees in an attempt to lose him. A scraping and thumping noise sounded, meaning that Greg wasn't quite dressed for the outside either and was slipping, too.

Marie jumped over a log, slid a little, and kept running. She glanced behind her to see that she was gaining a bit of a lead. Whatever hope she might have felt at this was squelched when the man in the suit came running from behind Greg. He was obviously much more in shape. He was also holding a gun, and it was pointed at her.

She screamed again when she heard a gunshot, and felt the rush of the bullet a foot to her right. These guys were serious about keeping their business! She dashed to the left, around another large tree. The forest started to go downhill at this point, making it harder for Marie to get traction. She jumped over another boulder and it proved too much. Her feet flew out from under her, and she tripped head over heels down the slope and into a denser concentration of trees at the bottom. The painful feeling of branches and brush clawing at her as she fell mixed with the sight she saw pulling closer and closer to her. The reason the trees looked denser at the bottom of the slope was because in the middle of them was a sheer cliff leading to a perpendicular second slope, and all of the intermingled plant life was crushed together at the base of the hill.

Marie's arms flew out and she tried to grab onto something to stop herself, but the hill was too steep at this point, and she kept sliding. Dirt flew up into her eyes, blinding her. Leaves and twigs caught in her hair and clothes and scratched her arms. She saw nothing, but felt herself shooting out into open air, and then falling. She smashed through branches, tumbled one last time, and finally landed at the base of the cliff. A pile of broken plant life consisting mostly of branches and dirt fell on top of her, hurting her, but also hiding her from view. The last thing she saw before everything went black was the man in the suit standing at the edge of the cliff, looking through the trees for her and not finding her.

The man clenched and unclenched his fists, practically shaking with fury. He couldn't see her anywhere. Behind him, Greg slid tiredly but carefully down the slope and met him on the cliff. "Do you see her?" he asked.

"No," the man replied softly. "No, and you better hope she didn't survive that fall." He spun around and pointed at Greg. "Moron! Dimwit! Why did you chase her? She ran into the woods because you chased her! You should have let me get ahead with my gun and scare her into working with us!"

"You were chasing her, too!" Greg countered.

"Yes, _after_ you did it and started losing her! I couldn't let that kid get away and tell the world our plans. And look what happened! She's disappeared!" At that moment, there was a blinding flash and a scream, and a sizzling noise like electricity. Both men instinctively ducked, then looked up. The sky was dark and clouded. It looked like a storm was coming.

They turned and looked back over the cliff. The second slope was filling with gray smoke. The man in the suit backed away from the cliff, and Greg looked shocked. "I think she just got hit by lightning..." he mumbled.

"You think?!" The man spat. "Get up and let's get out of here before we get hit, too! And _you're _telling the boss why his delivery got delayed today." He turned and started climbing back up the slope towards the house.

Greg gulped and followed. The boss was not going to be happy with this predicament. The only consoling thing about this was that the kid was undoubtedly dead now, after a lighting strike like _that_.

Except that she wasn't. If the men had stayed behind a minute longer, they would have seen the rocks, branches, and debris below the cliff beginning to float in the gray aura...

**Phew! This took a few hours to make. I'm glad it's done. =) And Marie is named after someone I know, not after Maria, if that's what you're thinking. I only just realized the coincidence a little bit ago.**

**Also, I've never written about a situation like Marie's in before, so I don't have a clue if this is realistic or not. What do you think?**

**R&R, and God bless!**


	3. Waking Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed

**Hello everyone, and welcome to Mythbusters! Failure is always an option, and I reject your reality and substitute my own!**

**Okay, not really. But this is my Sonic fanfic, if that makes you feel better.**

**No? Well, tuff toodlies. You got it anyways. =D**

**In case you're wondering, no, this is not a ShadowxOC fic. More of a Shadow friendship fic. I won't spoil it, but it's not romantic. Also, I know my potato thing last chapter was weird. I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head, so I just went with potatoes. It probably would have been better to hide the gems in snowglobes or something. I dunno. But I will do my very best to make it more interesting and not as weird as it sounds. Hopefully. Any advice or ideas at all would be nice. I have some of my own that will make the story more complicated and twisty like nice ironic stories are, but I'd still like any help you want to give. Third, I'm sooo sorry for how long this took to put out. I am done procrastinating. A frustrating incident which I won't tell the details of but I will say was caused by my procrastination had made me determined to do it NO LONGER. This is good news for you, because you get another chapter! Lastly, the disclaimer: I own nothing but what I own. **

**And now for your regularly scheduled program.**

Sonic yelped as the Chaos Emerald flashed, unable to move while the light enveloped him and the world around him vanished. The next thing he knew, the metal walls had turned to trees, the screen with Eggman on it had become a stony cliff, and the scrap metal had morphed into branches and soil debris.

While it had been the middle of a sunny afternoon when he'd entered the factory in the Green Hill Zone, he could tell even through the gray haze still surrounding him that it was barely twilight. Whether it was twilight morning or evening, he wasn't sure. Clouds overcast the sky, dark and thick, and lightning streaked and sliced through the bulbous airborne masses. Sonic could only just barely see the sky through the trees. He noticed that the trees were much thinner and shorter than the gigantic forest trees he was used to, like in the White Forest on Prison Island. Leftover chunks of rock and dirt slid from the cliff in a familiar way that made him think something had just fallen off of it recently.

All this thinking happened in a couple of milliseconds. Sonic was a fast thinker as well as a fast runner. How else could he come up with all those crazy plans that barely somehow worked, and seemed like genius and stupidity all at once? It was just something he did. He'd been observant like this since he was ten, and first began noticing the badniks swarming through his birth home, Christmas Island. That little adventure led to the first time he met Eggman, who still called himself Robotnik back then. But, that was a story for another time.

For now, Sonic was just trying to figure out where he was. It looked like no place he'd ever been before, and he'd been all over Earth enough times to know what places looked like. At least, he'd been all over _his_ Earth enough times...

He looked left and right for any clues. Moving his head was still about all he could do. To one side was a steep slope that led into a valley. To the other was that cliff face. And at the base of the cliff was... a girl?

The sight of her worried him. She looked unconscious and pretty beat up, with scratches covering her arms and legs and rips throughout her clothes. From where she was laying, he guessed that she had fallen off the cliff. He had no idea if she was badly hurt or not. Himself and all of his non-human friends didn't get hurt easily- falling off a cliff might result in a bruise or a single scratch, but nothing more. Humans had always been more delicate than animals. For them, falling off a cliff might result in death.

He was just about to yell out, to see if she was conscious enough to wake up at the sound of his voice, when he heard someone _else's_ voice.

"I think she just got hit by lightning..."

Sonic looked up. At the top of the cliff were two men. One was sitting and looking almost as beat up as the girl did. He had probably slid down the slope and stopped himself before going over. It looked like he was the one who had spoken, since his mouth was open. Next to him was a man in a suit, standing and holding a gun. The were both giving each other shocked looks, and Sonic instinctively didn't trust them. There was something very _wrong_ about them.

The man in the suit turned to the sitting man. "You think?! Get up and let's get out of here before we get hit, too! And _you're _telling the boss why his delivery got delayed today." He ran off, disappearing from view. The first man gulped nervously and followed. Sonic squinted towards the place they were standing at a second ago.

Yes, something seemed very, very wrong about them. Why was the man holding a gun? Why weren't they more upset about the girl falling off the cliff- shouldn't they have come down to help her, if they cared? What was the delivery he talked about? Was _she_ the delivery? It would explain why it was delayed, but not why they didn't come down to get her. Who was the boss?

These questions again swirled in the hedgehog's head for only milliseconds. None of them had a pleasant plausible answer. And, when something as mysterious, foreboding, and possibly villainous as this happened, who was Sonic not to follow?

He tested his arms and legs. He still couldn't move outside of the emerald's field.

The Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald! Sonic had completely forgotten about it! Where was it? He turned his head around, looking all over the area. There it was, a green gem hovering in the air just above the unconscious girl. Now, if he could just find a way to shimmy himself over to it, he might be able to find a way to take down the aura.

Oh, no. He realized, looking at it, that the emerald wasn't hovering at all. It was gliding downwards. Apparently, it's anti-gravity field didn't apply to itself. That would make sense, considering that he didn't remember it floating back at the factory. Now it was being slowly pulled downwards by gravity- and approaching the girl. Sonic was suddenly reminded of the remote that Eggman held. Without a doubt, the mad doctor would want his emerald back. All he'd have to do is set the distance to zilch again, and the emerald would leave. Eggman would only have to set it to only transport itself, instead of taking Sonic with it. But, if it was touching the girl when it happened...

"Hey, you!" Sonic yelled out. "Hey, you have to wake up! You could be in danger!" The girl didn't respond. She was too far out of it. The hedgehog could only watch with a sinking heart as the emerald drifted down to rest on her stomach. Then, a second later, there was a familiar white flash. Sonic closed his eyes against the spreading light. Then he landed with a _thump_ on the forest floor.

Opening his eyes, he saw only the cliff face where the girl and the emerald had been before.

o~o~o~o

Shadow and Tails had only been standing in the room for two minutes when there was a bright flash of light.

They were thinking about what to do, and what they could have done before, to fix this problem. They had no idea where Sonic was, or how to reach him. Now they leaped out of the room. Each of them thought that the light meant some sort of trap had been activated by their presence.

The fox and hedgehog waited on either side of the doorway as the flash faded. Then it was gone, and everything was silent again.

Tails looked at Shadow. "Do you think it's really gone?"

Shadow frowned in thought. "We don't know what _it_ is." He crouched down low and slid himself to the edge of the doorway. He peeked his head around the corner. Tails watched him anxiously. He opened his mouth to ask if everything was okay, but Shadow spoke again before he could. "There's a girl in there. It looks like she's hurt."

Tails' eyes widened. "What if Eggman hurt her? What if she's bait for us?"

"That's what I'm thinking." Shadow turned over his wrist and quietly slid an inhibitor ring off. He turned it on its end and flicked it so that it rolled into the room.

"What are you doing?" Tails hissed. "That's your inhibitor! You need that so you won't spend all your energy." The fox flicked his ear in frustration. Of course, Shadow knew that! What was he saying? "What I mean is, you could lose it forever if this is a trap!"

Shadow nodded. "Better it than us." The two of them watched the ring roll until it reached the girl. With a little _clink_, it bumped her head and flipped back onto the ground. Even that tiny impact made the girl groan in pain. After that, nothing seemed to happen. Shadow stood up. "I think it's alright to go in now-"

At that moment, there was another flash. This time, it came from the girl. A band of color the shade of Chaos Energy green appeared on her head, where the ring had touched it. It spread over her body and grew brighter and brighter, until it was too light to look at. Then it disappeared. Tails and Shadow waited to see if anything else would happen, but nothing else did.

"What was that?" The little fox trembled.

Shadow kept looking at the girl. Finally he said, "I don't think it's a trap. I think she's hurt, and that looked like a band of Chaos Energy that passed over her when my ring touched her."

Tails took a timid step forward. "So... we should find out what's wrong." Shadow nodded and went fully back into the room. The fox followed.

They both knelt down in front of the girl, and the black hedgehog picked up his inhibitor and put it back on. Tails took out his electronic pad from earlier and held it over the girl. He pressed a few buttons on it. After a minute, it beeped, and Tails grimaced. "I think she has a concussion. We need to get her to a hospital, or at least to my workshop, so I can help her."

"Alright, I'll inform GUN about what happened. I'll carry her out when I'm done."

Tails set his pad down on the floor. He decided to check the girl's pulse. Just when he had touched her wrist, she screamed. He jerked back as another green band of Chaos Energy spread over the girl. "Shadow! Something's wrong!" Shadow turned back just in time to see the light take on an electric shock.

"Tails, step back!" he yelled. "That's a manipulative form of Chaos Control! It was probably caused by the Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald. I can feel it!" Tails yelped and jumped away, his tails propelling him to the other side of the room. Shadow spin-dashed back to the other corner. The electricity grew and licked the air like green fire, crackling and hissing. The girl screamed louder, opening her eyes wide in fear.

Tails shivered, his fur rippling with the static in the air. "Is she hurting?!"

Shadow held his hand over his eyes in an attempt to shade them from the neon glow. "She shouldn't be! Chaos Energy only hurts if it's in something like a Chaos Spear or a Chaos Blast. This doesn't feel anything like one. I should know!" His quills blew and shook in the sizzling wind.

"M-maybe she's just afraid!" Tails shouted back. Then neither had time to speak anymore. Both were too busy staring.

The Chaos Energy had grown in power until it was a solid green column of light. They could just barely see the girl's silhouette floating in the green. At first, she swung her arms and legs like she was trying to get a grip on something. Then her limbs went straight and... shortened. They shrunk until reaching her elbow, and then her hands grew. Her head grew, too, and her neck shrank, while her legs shortened and her feet grew. Two pointy protrusions appeared on her head, and a long fluffy one from her back. Then, the energy abruptly faded, and she fell to the ground.

Tails gaped. Shadow didn't move- even he had his mouth hanging open. The girl was again unconscious; but she was no longer a girl.

"She's..." Tails flew forward, but only hovered above the scene. "She's a..."

"She's a fox," Shadow finished. "Just like you." He closed his mouth and went to stand under Tails. He knelt down and touched the girl. A little wisp of electricity shot out from the girl, and he yanked his hand back. "It looks like she was altered by her contact with the Chaos Energy. That doesn't make sense... she must have never come in contact with it before."

Tails settled onto the ground next to him. "But, aren't there tons of humans who haven't? They aren't really susceptible to Chaos Energy. Why did _she_ change?"

Shadow shook his head. "Everything comes in contact with Chaos Energy. The particles are naturally mixed with the air. They feed off of the emeralds and the Master Emerald, so they're everywhere. Like you said, humans just aren't susceptible to Chaos Energy. At least, they're not _supposed_ to be. Professor Gerald did research on this... he was originally planning on making the Ultimate Lifeform a human, until he found out that they couldn't use the Chaos Energy he was planning on infusing into it."

The fox picked up his electronic pad and scanned the girl again. "Whoa... Shadow, you need to look at this. I've never seen Chaos readings like _this_ before!"

Shadow stood up again and looked over Tails' shoulder. "That's because those aren't normal readings. In fact, that looks like the readings GUN had from the Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald. She must have recently come in contact with it."

Tails blinked. Then he shouted, "That's it!"

"What's it?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She recently came in contact with the Ultra Ionic Chaos Emerald." His furry face focused hard on the hedgehog's, speaking each word slowly. Shadow shrugged, obviously not getting it. "It means it teleported her! From another world! Possibly another _dimension._ Maybe the one Sonic was sent to!"

Now Shadow was nodding again. "So whenever and however Eggman brought his emerald back, it came in contact with this human from that world, and instead of bringing her straight to Eggman, it sent her here, where its last concentrated signal was."

"But, it doesn't look like it's here," Tails added. "So, it must have gone to Eggman, even though she didn't."

"And since she's from another world, she's never come into contact with Chaos Energy," Shadow continued.

"And since she's been touched by Ultra Ionic Chaos Energy, when _we _touched her, any remnant of Chaos Energy on us reacted to it and affected her!"

"My inhibitor ring put her in first contact, and your touch completely altered her- turning her into a fox from _our _world," Shadow finished. They both looked at the unconscious fox next to them. She groaned softly. "Which puts us right back where we started. She needs help, and we need to get out of here."

Tails bit his lip. "Oh, man, who _knows_ how her body's going to take this rapid change? Humans are so delicate!" Shadow decided to wait on his GUN report until later. He bent and picked the girl up. Green wisps swirled around his fingers at first, then vanished. It appeared that any further effects made by the Ultra Ionic Chaos Energy and ordinary Chaos Energy were also waiting until later. Or maybe they were all used up.

Shadow ran out of the room with the girl in his arms. Tails quickly followed, turning the map on his pad back onscreen and directing the way out. The simple quest for an emerald had become much more complicated; they had lost Sonic, but had found someone else in his place.

o~o~o~o

Sonic sped alongside the road, under the cover of those thin trees. Rain pitter-pattered on and into the leaves, but he payed no attention to it. He kept his eyes on a black sedan a quarter of a mile ahead of him. He couldn't let it get away. The two passengers it held had the answers to some of his questions.

He knew there was no way he was going to get an answer to his _other_ questions: Was the girl okay? How was he going to get home? At least, he wouldn't be able to answer those questions for a while. Things always turned out alright for him somehow. He was a little worried about the girl, but he was confident everything would be fine, as usual. However, he was curious.

So, when the girl had disappeared and he realized there was nothing he could do, he had jumped out of the valley and started following the two men from before. He couldn't let them see him, of course. Sure, he'd be able to take them out fine, but then he'd never find out where they were going or what they were talking about. They didn't seem like the kind of guys who would answer any questions he had. This meant he had to go into stealth mode. It wasn't something he did often, but he wasn't bad at it. Really, how hard was it to hide in the trees and run fast enough to keep up and not be seen? These guys didn't even have the high-tech cameras that Eggman had, and Sonic could hide from him any day!

It was funny for the first dozen or so miles. They would pull into someone's garage or go around to the wooded back of the house, and then Sonic would lean against a tree and wait for them to come back out again. Even in the growling light of what Sonic could now tell was dawn, he couldn't see what they were doing, but he kept having to snicker when he saw the driver look both ways multiple times before going back onto the road. The driver obviously didn't have his eyes trained to look for blue hedgehogs. The blur was very tempted at some points to hop on top of the car and sit there, to see how long it would take for them to find him there. He didn't, though. Even _he_ knew that was a dumb idea.

Then it started to get boring. After a while, they no longer stopped at anyone's house, and they just drove. It went on for an hour or so. Just driving, just the road, just trees, just rain, not even a town passing by to keep things remotely interesting. Don't get him wrong, Sonic loved nature. He was way into chilling out and taking a nap under a tree, or standing high up on a mountain and looking at the view. Nature was one of his favorite bonuses that came with traveling around everywhere. The problem was, when he's on an adventure, something exciting has usually happened by now. He would have run into some of Eggman's robots, or found a tucked away chao garden, or passed by one of his friends. He'd never done anything- _anything _except for chilling that stretched this long without action!

It bugged him. Something was seriously wrong here.

Fortunately, the car drifted into a city after a while. Sonic hopped on rooftops, following the roads the car took and being careful to let no one see him. Even a citizen could accidentally tip him off to the passengers of the sedan. The car went along the main road for only a very short time. As soon as possible, it turned down an alleyway. From there, it traced a complicated path through multiple discreet alleys and back roads leading to the downtown area.

Sonic was surprised by the size of the city. All the cities he'd ever seen were mere suburbs by comparison. While this place had much shorter buildings, it stretched on for miles; cities like Future City or Central City only filled maybe one or two square miles. Their downtowns consisted of a single road. This downtown was practically the size of Central City itself. Was that normal around here?

It began to occur to the hedgehog that he might be quite a bit farther from home than he originally thought. Truth be told, he hadn't originally thought about it at all. He'd never been outside of his own solar system. Now that he thought about it, that was kind of sad. A hero like him, never visiting another galaxy? Other comic and video game heroes did that all the time! Well, now it looked like it was his turn to do it.

He stopped pondering his whereabouts when he noticed that the sedan had pulled into a shabby looking parking complex. Sonic hopped over a couple buildings to get across the street, then slid quietly down the fire escape to land next to the complex. Checking to make sure no one was looking, he dashed through the driveway and into the underground level.

Sheesh, it looked as if this place hadn't been used in years! There was dirt and dust everywhere. He could barely read the labels on the pillars directing to Parking Level A and Parking Level B and so on. The only place not covered in grime was a path going straight down the center, skipping all the parking spaces. Two paths, actually- two parallel tire tracks.

Sonic stepped in the cleaner streaks the tires had made as he walked, so that he wouldn't make any extra footprints. He pursued the tire tracks until he reached the far back wall of the complex. There the paths stopped completely. They went _into _the wall. Alrighty, so the wall was a secret door. Nothing this speedy hog hadn't handled before!

With practiced ease, he spin-dashed onto the wall and ran up, left, and down in a neat square, ending on the opposite tire track. He tilted his head momentarily in thought. Then, guessing on the weak point based on where he'd run, he performed another spin-dash right in the center of the square he'd traced in the grime. The wall sunk in and smoothly slid upwards.

"Heh, piece of cake." Sonic did a pose, sticking out his classic finger-wagging gesture. Then he ran through the doorway. Time to get some answers.

**Phew, I finally got that done! Now in the next chapter, do you think I should do Marie's reaction when she wakes up, or should I get right into trying to make the potato thing more interesting with Sonic's answers? Because, in case you haven't noticed, the summary mentions him having to deal with a sad girl, and he hasn't run into the sad girl yet.**

**Please R and R and tell me what you think! =D God Bless!**


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